THE whole Filipino nation is celebrating the first-ever Olympic gold medal win by a countryman in weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz from Zamboanga. Unfortunately, there are others who prefer to highlight their appreciation to Ms. Diaz won by dwelling on past incidences where the gold medalist was included in the list of people who were said to be among those planning to destabilize the Duterte administration.
Their message is clear. That these people believe the government has no moral right to celebrate the Olympic feat of Ms. Diaz because, once it implicated the woman to be allegedly in the list of plotters.
But we believe that it is as clear as the message of the administration critics that the government continued to trust Ms. Diaz notwithstanding the allegations against her. If not, then the government could have found ways to have her out from the Philippine contingent , or denied her of other support that her private benefactors cannot give because these can only be given by the government.
Besides, it is not automatic that when one’s name is included in the list of whatever, one is already a functional member or a member at all of such organization or movement. Knowing how scheming anti-government organizations are and how trained they are in manipulating things to attain their objectives, it is not far-fetched that they will use anyone whose status in society cannot just create ripples but even tidal waves if drawn to a controversy. And with Diaz being a valued sports celebrity it would not be surprising if some brains in the anti-administration moves found her of great value to their cause.
We are certain however, that the Olympic gold medalist’s actuations when she comes back from the quadrennial meet will speak volumes about her and the allegations she was once heaped upon. The time for waiting starts now.
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In our column a few days back we cited some promises made by the President where we believe he was a failure.
One was his war on drugs which early into his administration he was optimistic he could stop or just minimize after 3 to 6 months. But he was chagrined at the thought that after six months and even a year thereafter, he found out that a dent was hardly attainable. He was greatly surprised that among the people he was supposed to entrust the mandate of stopping the drug proliferation were the once into the very business of protecting or facilitating the importation of the illegal drugs elements and /or processing the same to convert it to usable form. Some even headed groups that were into distribution.
The President ended up empty handed of his desired rewards from the law enforcers whom he provided a substantial increase in their salary so they will be motivated to work for the benefit of their fellow Filipinos.
The President admitted in his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday, that while his administration was enjoying certain level of success in his war against drugs, still the menace remains because contrary to his expectation, some law enforcers including those with high ranks in the organization, are already deep into the clutches of international syndicates and are already so used to the high life they are enjoying from the income they get from the illegal drugs groups they are working with.
Now, according to the President in his last SONA, he barely has less than a year left in office. He admitted that time is running out against him. But he is still optimistic he could try to do his best to make a difference in his war against drugs.
Whatever is in his mind, we do not know. But as we said earlier he can still do some “miracles” to redeem his tarnished image because of what could be his administration’s failure for now. As he said in his address, he is ready to do even the unpopular if it would amount to the best interest of the majority of Filipinos.
Many could still be hoping for any such ‘miracles.’
